The Bordentown Regional High School boys soccer team has been a scoring machine in its 3-1 start to the 2021 campaign.
Bordentown has scored a total of 13 goals over its first four games.
Coach Jason Zablow said he wasn’t expecting his “young” team to be scoring this many goals to begin the season.
The team’s early success offensively is a “good sign” to Zablow, who believes his 2021 Scotties have the ability to be in the mix this season to win the Burlington County Scholastic League-Patriot Division.
“We’re excited about where we are at,” Zablow said. “I think we have a chance to compete for the division title. We are a sophomore- and junior-driven team. Our younger guys are meeting their expectations.”
Leading the way in Bordentown’s offensive explosion are juniors Jay Beyers and Julien DeLorenzo.
Beyers tallied a team-high 10 goals last season and is off to a hot start in his junior campaign, scoring six goals, four in Bordentown’s season-opening victory over Pitman High School on Sept. 7.
The junior also has two assists so far this season, crediting his and the team’s early success to the hard work everyone put in during the preseason and in the offseason.
“All the work we have done as a unit in the preseason has really helped us carry momentum into the season,” Beyers said.
DeLorenzo knocked in four goals last fall for the Scotties. He has already matched that total this season, stepping into a starting role on the team, scoring all four of his goals in the team’s last two games.
The junior forward tallied a hat trick against Pemberton High School on Sept. 13 to lead Bordentown to a 6-2 victory.
“Things have gone way better than I’ve expected,” DeLorenzo said. “There’s a lot of chemistry on this team. We all know how to play with each other and it can help result in us scoring more goals and getting more wins.”
Freshman Luke Guire and juniors Lucas Fryc and Patrick Redwood have all found the back of the net once so far this season for the Scotties.
Guire’s first high school career goal helped seal Bordentown’s second victory of the season with a 2-0 defeat of Burlington Township on Sept. 9.
Bordentown’s one loss came on Sept. 10 to Life Center High School in Burlington by the score of 3-1.
Both Fryc and Redwood have also dished out two assists this fall.
Zablow calls Fryc the “leader” of the team’s defensive unit on the backline.
Junior Adam Wieczkowski is another key member of the Bordentown defense at the center back position.
Freshman Joey Klama and sophomore Addison Kennedy are two newcomers to the Bordentown lineup that have impressed Zablow in the early part of the season, he said.
A big change for the Scotties is in net this season with goalkeeper Charlie Revy graduating last spring and now playing at Montclair State University.
Goalkeeping this season is senior Pim van Hilten, a transfer student from the Netherlands.
Zablow says van Hilten has been doing “great” since he joined the team during the preseason.
“He has a high soccer IQ,” Zablow said of his senior goalkeeper. “He’s made a couple of big saves that have kept us in games or in the lead. He talks a lot and that’s huge for a young team. It gives the guys confidence.”
Van Hilten has 32 saves through the first four games of the season.
From his experience playing soccer overseas, van Hilten has brought over a different style of play that Zablow said the team has incorporated into their system. This includes allowing van Hilten to possess the ball more to help the team’s backline when retaining possession on defense.
After going through a COVID-19 shortened season last fall, Zablow has seen a lot of excitement from his players since the start of the preseason, saying that was evident with more guys on the team passing the team’s fitness test than in prior years.
Zablow believes that excitement and the hard work his players put in during the offseason will continue to carry over into the regular season as Bordentown makes the push for its tenth consecutive season with a winning record.
“They’re buying in and want to be as good as they can,” he said.
Bordentown continues its stretch of five straight away games on Sept. 15 against Moorestown High School. The Scotties will return home to host Cinnaminson High School on Sept. 22.